Research activities on SIMPLIFIED GROWING SYSTEMS FOR EDIBLE PLANT CULTIVATION IN GREEN ROOFS are conducted in collaboration with the Instituto Cidade Jardim (The Garden City Institute), a Brazilian company founded in 2008. Instituto Cidade Jardim aims to offer regenerative solutions to heal the urban environment enabling to cope with urban development challenges for the 21th century. The company designs and produces materials for green roofs, having installed over 80,000 square meters in their first 10 years of work. They also offer online courses and training for students from all over Brazil and Latin America. In 2012 the company invented a brand new green roof solution to bring all the well known benefits of green roofing to those buildings (and also houses, sheds, etc.) without slabs or waterproofing membranes, which also integrated the capability to work in a closed hydroponic loop, fed with reused water - it's water conservative, turns dirt water into biomass or food, and promises to make green roofs more accessible to the developing world. In 2016 the company was granted by the Sustainable Cities - Intelligent Cities award offered by FAPESP and FINEP (Brazilian development agencies) to improve product research and to make innovation ready for the market.
